Environmental characteristics The Martesana We are starting the study of the environmental characteristics with an analysis of the Martesana river, focusing more on the Vimodrone area. The map on the top right represents the path of the Martesana canal and the surrounding waters, which are some lakes in and around Vimodrone. First we can notice that the Martesana canal is crossing Vimodrone on the axis West-East, thus dividing Vimodrone into its Northern and Southern area. The canal is non-interrupted in any area, it is crossable through bridges in different zones in the municipality of Vimodrone, in order to connect the Northern and Southern parts. From the Martesana flow a certain number of affluents that surround the different neighbourhoods in Vimodrone. In what concerns the presence of the lakes in the area, they are not numerous or particularly large. However, the most known lake is Cava Gaggiolo, also known as one of the elements composing Milan’s “Green Lung”. The map below represents a personal interpretation of the presence of the Martesana and its affluents. The affluents flowing from the Martesana are surrounding the diverse neighborhoods and creating a natural organization and structure of Vimodrone. This interpretative map is showing the variety in the organization of Vimodrone structured by the Martesana and its affluents. As we can notice, the affluents of the Martesana in the Southern part flow along the neighborhoods as if they were creating fortresses and thus naturally separating the neighborhoods one from the other. The neighborhoods in the Southern part of Vimodrone are very heterogeneous and present a multitude of typlogies. On the contrary, the Northern area is more homogeneous in what concerns the organization of the buildings and neighborhoods.
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